Tift standoff ends with an arrest

Tift County -- A man with a knife held a woman hostage in her home overnight in Tift County after he cut another man's throat. Investigators are trying to sort out the details of what happened.

Thomas Boose was inside his home on Fletcher Drive in Tift County when his neighbor came to the door around 11 o'clock Monday night with knife wound to his neck.

"I was like 'man, what's really going on?' Because Art came over here and it really scared me, because he was beating on the door and his neck and stuff was bleeding. He just talking like 'give me some water,' and I was like 'oh no, oh no.'"

About that time, Tift County Sheriff Deputies responded to a 911 call of a robbery at a house. They say 47-year-old Dennis Lee Hooper, was holding a woman inside at knife point, and the standoff began.

"From that point we activated our special response team. They arrived on the scene and after approximately after two-and-a-half to three hours of intense negotiation was able to secure the hostage and take the perpetrator into custody without incident," said Major Jason Jones of the Tift County Sheriff's Office.

Hooper has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of kidnapping, and one charge of sexual battery.

And while the situation left one man hospitalized, police are thankful the situation ended the way it did. "It's unfortunate we had to respond to the incident, but it was as peaceful of a resolution that could be expected. The hostage was relatively uninjured and the perpatrater was not injured at all," said Jones.

A tense standoff, a peaceful resolution.

Hooper remains in the Tift County jail, and it's unclear at this point what if any relation he had to the victims.